This invention relates to surgical casts for a body surface and more particularly, to a surgical cast formed with an opening that contains a window.
Surgical casts are well known for their use in immobilizing a fracture to enable the fracture to properly fuse. It is also well known that the immobility furnished by a cast is not absolute and therefore most surgical casts can move slightly relative to the body surface that is cast. Although this movement is generally miniscule, it can lead to problems in certain instances.
For example, when a fractured bone such as a tibia, femur or humerus is set, small pins are often inserted through the skin at the vicinity of the fracture with one end of each pin being located at the fracture and an opposite end thereof being located approximately at skin level in an area known as the pin-site. Although the pins help to stabilize the fracture and promote healing, rubbing of the cast at the pin-site causes undesirable movement of the skin against the pins which can chafe, irritate and infect the area around the pin-site.
It has been found that a small amount of electric current applied to the area around the fracture also helps to promote healing by stimulating and accelerating the bone fusion process. This discovery has led to the development of bone growth stimulators that furnish a predetermined amount of current to the fractured area by, for example, a connection to the pins at the pin-site. However, the connecting structure at the pin-site can even further compound the problem of irritation or infection due to rubbing of the cast at the pin-site.
Unfortunately, such movement of the cast relative to the skin at the pin-site, while potentially troublesome, cannot be effectively avoided because most attempts to provide a tight-fitting cast can cause a more insidious problem of circulatory obstruction.
It is thus desirable to provide a cast for a body surface which eliminates rubbing at the pin-site and maintains a sterile condition at the area of the pins whether or not a bone growth stimulator is connected to the pin-site area.